Unmarried Fathers Rights in South Africa

When it comes to unmarried fathers rights in South Africa, it is important that you have the law on your side and you know more or less when you are within the law and when you aren’t. Regardless of whether you are married or not, all dad’s have the right to visitation with their children, unless there are significant reasons, approved of by a judge in the court, that this should not be allowed. Both parents should have different lawyers that can help them with the legal part of this dilemma, and it is in maintenance court that a set amount of maintenance will be decided upon for the parent without custody to pay.

Lawyers are always needed in these situations and you shouldn’t discuss things with your ex if your lawyer isn’t present as it could backfire on you horribly, even if you think you know all the unmarried fathers rights in South Africa out of the book. When children are born out of wedlock it tends to create some speculation inside the courtroom, but it shouldn’t have any effect on the legal decisions made regarding the dad’s visitation rights with his kids. As a father, you have to be an unfit parent in order for the law to deny you access to your kids, and by unfit it means you would be an alcohol or substance abuser, have a history of violence, criminal records, etc.

Therefore, as long as you don’t consider yourself to be anything of the above or something similar, then there should be no reason why you aren’t allowed weekend visits with your children. In the beginning, the court might only agree on supervised visitation, but in time if they are happy with your relationship with the kids then they should allow unsupervised visits. Knowing a bit about unmarried fathers rights in South Africa can be an advantage to you should you ever find yourself in this situation.